By TEMI-TOPE ARIYO
Economists across the globe are unanimous on the fact that a country should specialize on her area of comparative advantage. This philosophy is rooted on the aphorism that “one cannot give what it does not have” l observe that previous administrations in Ekiti have partially or outrightly failed in asking questions on Ekiti’s area of comparative advantage otherwise, these vast and ever green forests in Ekiti would have today been turned to a food hub for the entire nation.
Even the blind can see that this state is endowed with fertile and vast land potent enough to take as many youths off the street, generate foreign exchange, provide food security and boost the economy. The pertinent question to ask is why has almost 70 percent of this rainforest remained yet untapped? What should be done to put Ekiti on the right pedestal as a global hub of food production? How and when can this be achieved? So many questions are confronting the Ekiti beautiful forest.
But, we are glad today that we have a governor who is ready to answer all. It is not enough to wear Obafemi Awolowo’s cap just like the new generation of politicians from Nigeria’s western divide who often like to deck in the stylish cap of the late premier of the Western Region to beguile the public. But it is enough to show acts and charisma demonstrated by the late sage that made the Nigeria western world an idol of productivity and industry.
Oyebanji is showing in Ekiti that we can actually remodel the past in a way that would appeal to the present and also concretize a consistency of good practices that could tame the future. *Ekiti is currently budding 930 young professional farmers that would still grow in numbers and later be unleashed to wipe hunger from Ekiti land and address the food needs of millions of Nigerians.
This is being done by replicating the farmsteads of the Awolowo’s era, improving on the model by widening the scope of operation and putting up a viable mechanism reliable for the dreams of the 21st century. No government especially from the western Nigeria or in the history of Ekiti has ever been so sincere and committed to the task of food production like the Oyebanji’s administration.
“The land we are returning to now were last cleared by Chief Awolowo during his time as Premier in Western Region.”This is the beginning of greater things that will happen in Ekiti State.
Western Region was renowned for agriculture under Chief Awolowo and he developed Western Region without oil money and we had food surplus in those days. With what we are doing with our youths now, we are returning to the era of Awolowo’s farm settlements……. construction of the dormitories will start. We now have more youths showing interest in the scheme, they will have that opportunity to join in the next stage once we get more land”, the Governor added.
When he said he was returning the farmsteads of the Awolowo’s era, it was only a reference to a model that served the people of that generation, What Oyebanji is creating now is a farm cluster that will serve the needs of this ever demanding digital age. Ekiti is pacesetting a farming hub where power, internet and relaxation would not be absent for a second.
The governor was desperate to show all the youths across board that they can become rich without engagements in internet frauds and other forms of vices. Already in place are farm settlements in lkere,Eporo, Orin, Oke Ako, lyemero ,Aramoko ,Igede ,etc.The government is not resting on its oars. It has also announced its plans to scale up its cluster farming initiative by increasing the number of farm clusters to 100 in the 2025* planting season! What an ambition!
Factually, based on the interests currently being shown by thousands of youths in the government farming project, the dream of a hundred farms is realistic and achievable as long as the government continues in this momentum.People within and without Ekiti have continuously wondered where the governor has borrowed his own brand of governance which has been evidently soothing to the livelihood of Ekiti people.
This magical template has been serving the people in the areas of infrastructure, education, empowerment and now, food production. Pressures and political hostilities are on the lowest in this horizon because everyone can see that almost for the first time the state is being put on the threshold of sustainable development leaving only a tiny loophole for any criticism or political wrangling .
We expect that in 2025, a large portion of the vast vegetation that has kept smiling at us vainly for decades fallow and uncultivated would have been turned to a food and foreign exchange booster for the state. Someone once told me that Ekiti has a magician in power. He believed that what the governor has been doing in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture and others are quite supernatural and unprecedented in the history.
Will the vast forests in Ekiti be truly turned to a food hub in the Nigeria western region? Will hundreds of youths join their counterparts on the farm having to abandon the street? Will Ekiti become food sufficient and become foreign exchange earners through food production? The song, the answer is already on the lips of a hundreds of Ekiti youths who already feel the sky is the beginning for the Oyebanji-led administration.
Temi-Tope Ariyo Is the Director of Press Office of the Deputy Gove
